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The dirty fossil fuel secret behind Burma's democratic fairytale | Nafeez Ahmed

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-04-26 22:18
South-east Asian country's untapped natural wealth is being opened up, regardless of the environmental and human costs

New evidence has emerged that the systematic violence against ethnic Rohingya in Burma - "described as genocidal by some experts" - is being actively supported by state agencies. But the violence's links to the country's ambitions to rapidly expand fossil fuel production, at massive cost to local populations and to the environment, have been largely overlooked.

Over 125,000 ethnic Rohingya have been forcibly displaced since waves of violence swept across Burma's Arakan state last year, continuing until now, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch's (HRW) latest sobering report. The "ethnic cleansing" campaign against Arakan's Muslim minority, although instigated largely by Buddhist monks rallying local mobs, has been the product of "extensive state involvement and planning", according to HRW's UK director David Mepham.

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Categories: Around The Web

Inside a genetically modified salmon farm in Panama - video

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-04-26 00:10
Genetically modified salmon produced by US firm AquaBounty grow faster and fatter than their natural counterparts – and the firm that designed them hopes to have FDA approval to bring the first GM animal to consumers' plates this week. Online campaign group Avaaz visited the firm's ramshackle farm in the lush western highlands of Panama at 1,500m above sea level in the town of Boquete Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Amazon v the Amazon: internet retailer in domain name battle

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-04-25 21:57
Brazil and Peru governments say company should not profit from an address that refers to an important geographical area

When you see the word "Amazon", what's the first thing that springs to mind – the world's biggest forest, the longest river or the largest internet retailer – and which do you consider most important?

These questions have risen to the fore in an arcane, but hugely important, debate about how to redraw the boundaries of the internet. Brazil and Peru have lodged objections to a bid made by the US e-commerce giant for a prime new piece of cyberspace: ".amazon".

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Categories: Around The Web

GM salmon's global HQ – 1,500m high in the Panamanian rainforest

The Guardian - Wed, 2013-04-24 23:34
Supersized genetically modified salmon grown fast and fat and after years of wrangling, are ready for market – but is the market ready for them? And why is the firm hidden away in Panama?

It is hard to think of a more unlikely setting for genetic experimentation or for raising salmon: a rundown shed at a secretive location in the Panamanian rainforest miles inland and 1,500m above sea level.

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Categories: Around The Web

Chernobyl's ghost town - in pictures

The Guardian - Mon, 2013-04-15 00:27
Pripyat, founded for the 49,000-plus Chernobyl nuclear power plant workers and their families, now stands empty within the Chernobyl exclusion zone in northern Ukraine. It was evacuated in 1986 after the explosion at reactor #4 Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

SEng Victoria Newsletter - April 2013

Newsletters VIC - Sat, 2013-04-13 03:43
SEng Victoria Newsletter - April 2013
Categories: Newsletters VIC

April Seminar - Brisbane District Cooling System

Newsletters QLD - Sun, 2013-04-07 07:33
April Seminar - Brisbane District Cooling System
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Fukushima town revealed in Google Street View two years after tsunami

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-03-28 05:36
Mayor of Namie invites Google's cameras in to stop world forgetting twin disasters of tsunami then nuclear meltdown

Two years after Fukushima's triple nuclear meltdown forced tens of thousands of residents to flee, it is possible to take a virtual journey deep into the exclusion zone to one of the towns they left behind.

Google Street View has published striking images of the devastation visited on Namie by the March 2011 tsunami and nuclear meltdown: abandoned homes, shops and restaurants, fields blanketed in grass and weeds.

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Categories: Around The Web

Easter eggs rated by palm oil use

The Guardian - Mon, 2013-03-25 20:21
Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian come bottom of a league table of chocolate Easter eggs scored on use of unsustainable palm oil

Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian have come bottom of a green ranking of Easter eggs based on their use of palm oil. Divine Chocolate came top, with the Co-operative and Sainsbury's close behind in the survey of more than 70 brands by Ethical Consumer magazine and charity Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK).

The organisations are launching a campaign in response to the increasing threat that unsustainable palm oil is posing to the world's rainforests, their indigenous wildlife, and the people whose livelihoods depend on the forests. Having destroyed vast areas of forest in countries such as Indonesia, palm oil companies are now planning to expand in the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Africa.

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Categories: Around The Web

Technical Seminar 19 March - the Carbon Faming Initiative

Newsletters QLD - Fri, 2013-03-15 07:13
Technical Seminar 19 March - the Carbon Faming Initiative
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Shark species facing extinction - in pictures

The Guardian - Mon, 2013-03-11 21:10
Almost 100 million sharks are being killed each year, with fishing rates outstripping the ability of populations to recover, scientists have estimated. Sharks are targeted for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia, but as they are slow-growing and slow to reproduce, they are vulnerable to overfishing Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

SEng Victoria Newsletter

Newsletters VIC - Thu, 2013-03-07 02:07
SEng Victoria Newsletter
Categories: Newsletters VIC

1.5C rise in temperature enough to start permafrost melt, scientists warn

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-02-22 05:00
Team of scientists use radiometric dating techniques on Russian cave formations to measure historic melting rates

A global temperature rise of 1.5C would be enough to start the melting of permafrost in Siberia, scientists warned on Thursday.

Any widespread thaw in Siberia's permanently frozen ground could have severe consequences for climate change. Permafrost covers about 24% of the land surface of the northern hemisphere, and widespread melting could eventually trigger the release of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, which would have a massive warming effect.

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Categories: Around The Web

Chinese environment official challenged to swim in polluted river

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-02-22 01:02
Bao Zhenming, who declined to take up the challenge was offered over £20,000 to swim in the contaminated waterway

Widespread outrage against China's environmental issues that began when Beijing's air pollution hit record levels last month has spread to encompass another major public health threat: water pollution.

Last week, an eyeglass-retailer executive from Rui'an City, coastal Zhejiang province, offered the city's environmental protection chief Bao Zhenming more than £20,000 to take a 20-minute dip in a highly polluted local river. The entrepreneur, Jin Zengmin, posted the dare to his microblog beneath pictures showing the waterway overflowing with discarded aluminum cans, polystyrene boxes and paper lanterns. He blamed the river's industrial demise on dumping by a local rubber shoe factory.

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Categories: Around The Web

SEng Victoria News

Newsletters VIC - Sun, 2013-02-17 10:53
SEng Victoria News
Categories: Newsletters VIC

SEng National Newsletter - Issue 1

Newsletters National - Wed, 2013-02-13 21:18
SEng National Newsletter - Issue 1
Categories: Newsletters National

Welcome to 2013 with SSEE! The Brisbane Floods 2 years on

Newsletters QLD - Thu, 2013-02-07 21:57
Welcome to 2013 with SSEE! The Brisbane Floods 2 years on
Categories: Newsletters QLD

After 30 years, is a GM food breakthrough finally here?

The Guardian - Sun, 2013-02-03 05:47
Golden rice, a new strain that boosts vitamin A levels and reduces blindness in developing countries, could be sown in the Philippines – and is the new battleground crop

Scientists say they have seen the future of genetically modified foods and have concluded that it is orange or, more precisely, golden. Next year, golden rice – normal rice that has been genetically modified to provide vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in the developing world – could be given to farmers in the Philippines for planting in paddy fields.

Thirty years after scientists first revealed they had created the world's first GM crop, hopes that their potential to ease global malnutrition problems may be realised at last. Bangladesh and Indonesia have indicated they are ready to accept golden rice and other nations, including India, have also said that they are considering planting it.

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Categories: Around The Web

Devastation on England's east coast after 1953's 'Big Flood' – in pictures

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-01-31 22:24
In the worst natural disaster Britain experienced during the 20th century, the low-lying housing of England's east coast was devastated by a huge tidal surge, which left 307 people dead and 40,000 homeless. A lack of preparedness was the cause of the huge scale of the disaster, and the emergency response was led by the community, with the majority of search and rescue done before central government became involved Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Florida’s inaugural Python Challenge hunt – in pictures

The Guardian - Wed, 2013-01-23 22:28
The Python Challenge, an open-invitation competition held by the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is a one-month snake hunt to catch and kill invasive and prolific Burmese pythons. The contest has drawn hundreds of amateur hunters armed with captive bolt guns and machetes, each hoping to win the $1,000 and $1,500 prizes Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

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